The unknown woman has not been able to see the world for eighteen years. Her entire view has been a few square yards surrounding her feet on either side. She isn’t able to see faces of anyone, unless they bend low and look up at her. She can’t see treetops, or birds, or neighbors’ houses, just dirt and grass and everyone’s feet. After eighteen years, she has given up hope. She’s almost gotten used to it.Then along comes Jesus. He knows the Scriptures. He knows the tradition. Doing no work on the Sabbath is from Genesis, where God creates the earth and rests on the seventh day, and it’s from Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments. But he also knows the other teaching about the Sabbath, which is in Deuteronomy. “Take care to keep holy the Sabbath day as the Lord, your God commanded you. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then, whether by you or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your ass or any of your beasts, or the stranger who lives with you. Your male and female slave should rest like you do. For remember that you too were once salves in Egypt, and the Lord, your God, brought you out of there…” (5: 12-15)The sabbath is a day of rest, given by God for Everyone. It is the day to celebrate your freedom. A day that shows that a person is more than work, more than meeting obligations, not ruled by anything. It is a day to celebrate our complete freedom from any kind of oppression, as sons and daughters of God.And this woman is clearly oppressed. She has carried this burden, a physical burden, but also a psychological and social burden, for eighteen years. She can’t enjoy the beauty of life as fully as everyone else. She can’t pick up her grandchildren. She is considered unclean, and she isn’t able to participate in the community like everyone else. She is heavily burdened.The Pharisee doesn’t object to her healing, it’s the timing that’s the problem. “Great, heal her, but she’s waited eighteen years, what’s one more day? You don’t need to heal her on the Sabbath.” But Jesus has no interest in waiting. I bet the woman has no interest in waiting either. God doesn’t want to see anyone burdened one second longer. She is a daughter of God, a daughter of Abraham, and as a daughter of God, she has complete right to the dignity and fullness of life that God wants for everybody. It’s part of the freedom of the sabbath rest. No one, not your slave, not your farm animals, not your visitor, no one should be oppressed on the sabbath. It’s a day to celebrate your freedom, and rest. So he heals her.How are we burdened down? How are we bent under limiting ways of thinking, or attitudes that we don’t need any more? This could be a day to look at that. If you were to pay attention to what you say to yourself about yourself during the day, or in the wee hours of the night, is there something that keeps you down? Some people put themselves down with thoughts like, “Well, that was stupid. I shouldn’t have done that. I should have known better.” Some people apologize all the time. Some people spend a lot of time regretting decisions or actions in the past, or think they should be smarter. God would want us to be free from that. Try telling yourself the opposite instead. “I did the best I could at the time. I’m not perfect, and I don’t need to be. I get to learn to grow. I can forgive myself. Who I am is really good enough.” Instead of thinking, “I’m too fat, I need to lose weight, what if we thought, “I’m doing good things with this body, and I’m happy with it?” It could be an epiphany. By thinking new, different thoughts, we actually train our brain to think them more often.The woman wasn’t the only one enslaved by a sort of oppression, a lack of freedom. The religious practice that was supposed to remember and encourage the freedom of God’s people from slavery was being used by the religious establishment as a means of social control and oppression. For Jesus, the needs of the people of God far outweighed rules. You honor God by honoring the people.In those days, anything that oppressed the people was thought of as under the power of Satan. Social oppression, exclusion, the crippling burden of disease, all of that was believed to be under the power of evil. And Jesus, God’s power was clearly 100% opposed to all of it.Many of you have seen the picture of the little boy in Syria that was rescued from a bombed building. He is sitting in an ambulance with his face covered in dirt and blood, and he is just staring ahead in shock. The power of evil. The power of violence. The power of oppression.Sex trafficking of women and girls. According to the Mn. Judicial Branch, Minnesota has the third highest rate of child sexual exploitation in the nation. The FBI has identified the Twin Cities as one of the nation's 13 largest centers for child prostitution. Native American girls and women have a much higher percentage of being trafficked than the rest of the state. According to the National Council of American Indian Research Center, “In Hennepin County, Minnesota, roughly 25 percent of the women arrested for prostitution identified as American Indian…In Anchorage, Alaska, 33 percent of the women arrested for prostitution were Alaska Native…In Winnipeg, Manitoba, 50 percent of adult sex workers were defined as Aboriginal… and 52 percent of the women involved in the commercial sex trade in Vancouver, British Columbia were identified as First Nations.”17 To clarify how disproportionate these rates are, it is important to note that in not one of these cities and counties do Native women represent more than 10 percent of the populations. (National Council of American Indian Research Center, Spring 2016) Take incredible poverty, promise them the American dream, and it’s pretty easy to lure young unsuspecting girls into a life they never imagined.The inequality between my health insurance and the health care hassles of those without good insurance. I remember taking my kids in foster care to the doctor at clinics at Hennepin Co. We would wait on chairs in the hallway for sometimes an hour with no toys, no books unless we brought our own. Then not all medical / dental services are provided to children without private insurance. Why don’t those children get the same treatment as my children? Is it their fault that their parents are poor, or that they don’t live with their parents? Do they deserve less from their birth onwards? This is societal sin, communal sin. It’s not the fault of you or me, but it is bigger. A bigger problem. This is societal sin, communal sin. It’s not an individuals’ fault, and it takes all of us to make a change in societyThis is where Jeremiah comes in. “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer. 1: 4 & 5)Before our parents knew us, before we even knew ourselves, God knew us. That intimate soul known by God, is what is consecrated to holiness, without our even knowing it. Our centers, our souls, are part of the holiness of God, part of the same spirit. We are always turning to the light, to the good, because we recognize who we are, and Who we are part of.That holy part of us recognizes the good in the world, and the evil, and we are attracted to the good. That is what it means to be a prophet. Speak what should be spoken. Affirm the good, and help it along. Speak against the evil, and don’t let it take hold. Work against it, and stand for what’s right. Don’t be afraid to let your voice be heard.In calling Jeremiah, and in healing the bent over woman, God took the initiative. Jeremiah didn’t ask to be a prophet. The woman didn’t ask to be healed. God made the first move, each time. We don’t need to try to control things, or to worry about not doing things right. God says, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy…I am only a woman…I am too old…I don’t know enough…for you shall go to whoever I send you, and you shall speak whatever I tell you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you…”God is passionately involved in human affairs, and more often than you know, God works through you.